One Squiggly Line Blog
Hand-drawn pictures can make things clear, simple, and fun in blogs, too!
Here’s a little create Halloween fun. Print out this DoodleBlocks sheet or put it into a drawing app on your ipad. Then fill in the blank boxes following along with the Halloween theme. Be sure to spend no more than 2 minutes per block. Also, be sure to continue any lines that touch the boundaries of the block — remember creativity is all about making connections. And be sure to color!
More DoodleBlock fun and a 30 day challenge available in the One Squiggly Line Classroom.
Print out this mini pumpkin patch and practice drawing some faces on them. This can be a quick and simple warm up before creative work or a way to refresh your thinking when you get stuck. You can also trace over the pumpkins if you want to learn how to draw them. Head on over to the One Squiggly Line Shop to get this free printable download. A PNG file with transparent background so you can cut and paste individual pumpkins to use online, too. For all ages.
Friendly hand-drawn visuals make facts more friendly and approachable. They can also make the fact more memorable. This is one of many visuals about fun facts of San Francisco.
There's a myth out there that highly creative people just sit around and wait for inspiration to strike. And while they wait, they really don't care about the real world.
Truth is, highly creative people know great ideas do not come from within. They come from connections made with something outside ourselves. Often, those connections are made with something created by another creative person.
That's why the highly creative notice, appreciate, and celebrate creativity wherever they find it. And they even seek it out. So if you'd like to be more creative, start appreciating creativity when you see it. You'll soon discover ideas really are all around you!
Think back to when you were a kid. Do you remember your personality? Do you remember any quirks you had?
And if you can’t remember that far back, think about the little kids you know, whether family, friends, or even strangers.
They all have one thing in common - they’re at the the most creative stage in their life.
Children are at a stage where they haven’t been conditioned to many routines and norms. They are completely themselves - unfiltered and raw.
...Always asking why
...Not caring too much of what others think about their appearance or their actions
...Saying whatever comes to mind
...Not holding back any ounce of laughter
As we grow older, eventually we don’t question as much
Eventually the routines of life become mainstream
Eventually our imagination grows stale
We hold back our laughter more and more
And eventually we lose the perspective of what could be in exchange for what is
Creativity gets taught out of us
Our teachers telling us to write in 12 pt. Arial font.
Our parents not having enough patience to answer all of our why’s.
Our own inflicted judgements
We become afraid of failure. Of messing up. Of saying the wrong thing. Of being judged.
To the point where we’ve lost ourselves in exchange for a mask that society has handed us.
We have unlearned creativity.
We all have the ability to be creative, but it's our job to learn it again.
Visual thinking is a great way to jumpstart your creativity, whether personally or professionally, alone or with a group. Simply watching someone else create something can inspire creative thinking and actions. Contact me to bring the power of visuals to your next event, meeting, or project and reclaim your creativity!
While visual thinking makes things simple, it certainly does not dumb them down. Part of the simplicity comes from removing unnecessary parts, leaving behind only what you need to work with. That allows you to really see exactly what it is you do have to work with. This often leads to that, "Oh, now I get it!" moment when everything finally seems to fall into place and make sense.
Once you can see things more clearly, you are able to make better decisions. Sometimes, things become so obvious it doesn't even really feel like you're making a decision at all. The right choice just jumps right at you. Or if you do need to think about it for a minute, it's much easier for you to grab it and run with it.
Check out One Squiggly Line's About Visual Thinking page to learn more.
Hand-drawn visuals are far friendlier than standardized fonts and stock photos. And hand-drawn visuals are even more inviting when created live, right there where everyone can see.
The drawing above was created during the opening remarks at the Women in Cyber Security conference the end of March. It was then displayed near registration to welcome late-comers. Not a high resolution file shown here, just taken with my iPhone in the moment.
To see the whole set of visual notes from the Women in Cyber Security conference, check out this Flickr album.
Visualizing things richly and colorfully leads to more creative thinking. You probably visualize things more than you realize, without really thinking about it. So you already have some visual thinking skills. But how do you become better at visualizing things on purpose?
Try this:
Go to a hardware store or someplace that sells paint. First, pick a paint sample color card that matches your shirt. That's a warm-up, starting with something very concrete and right in front of you — your shirt.
Then, look for a paint sample color card that matches something at home. It could be a different shirt, a piece of furniture, your walls. Whatever you choose, you will need to picture it very clearly in your mind so you can "see" the color.
Paint sample cards are usually free, so you can take home the ones you think are the closest and see how well you did. The more you practice, the better you get!
Check out One Squiggly Line's About Visual Thinking page to learn more.
We look at letters every day. Online. Text messages. Street signs. Starbuck's coffee cups. Letters are everywhere.
When we see things all the time, we often stop really looking at them. Common things can become invisible.
When that happens, it's a great time to get creative with them. That causes you to look at things in a new way. Explore them from a bunch of different perspectives. Really look at them. See them in a new light. That's where a lot of new ideas are often found — sitting there right in front of us, in plain sight!
Hand-drawn visuals to make things clear, simple, and fun so you can understand more deeply, communicate more clearly, and act more confidently. Visual Notes ~ Illustration ~ Sketch Animation ~ Graphic Recording ~ Other Creative Services.
One Squiggly Line | San Francisco Bay Area & beyond!, California, USA